Budapest Guide
Várhegy and central Buda
The Military History Museum
Opening time: April– Sept 10am–6pm; Oct– March 10am–4pm; closed Mon
Price: 700Ft
Address: Tóth Árpád sétány
The Military History Museum (Hadtörténeti Múzeum), in a former barracks, has gung-ho exhibitions on the history of hand weapons from ancient times till the advent of firearms, and the birth and campaigns of the Honvéd (national army) during the 1848–49 War of Independence. However, what sticks in the memory are the sections on the Hungarian Second Army that was decimated at Stalingrad (ask to see newsreel footage as there are no regular shows). In the courtyard are post-Communist memorials to the POWs who never returned from the Gulag.
The entrance to the museum is on Tóth Árpád sétány, a promenade lined with cannons and chestnut trees on the western side of the hill, looking across to the Buda Hills. At its northern end it turns east, past a giant flagpole striped in Hungarian colours, to the symbolic grave of Abdurrahman, the last Turkish Pasha of Buda, who died on the walls in 1686 – a "valiant foe", according to the inscription.